8th Grade Reading Responses
by Hobbit4Lyfe
Summary: These are short story reading responses I did in 8th grade. Not my best work. Please review.
1. The Tell-Tale Heart

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Edgar Allan Poe shows that the murderer of the old man changes. He keeps saying that he is not a madman at the beginning of the story. The old man's pale blue eye was driving the murderer crazy. The murderer eventually kills the old man in his sleep. "The old man's" heartbeat drives the murderer mad, and he eventually admits his crime to the police that were investigating the house.


	2. The Speckled Band

"The Speckled Band," one of Sherlock Holmes' stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, shows justice. Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Watson, figure out what happened during the strange time of a client's, Helen Stoner's, sister's death. They also find out how the women's stepfather, Grimesby Roylott, died. The detectives investigate Stoke Moran, Roylott's mansion, with Ms. Stoner. Holmes figures out that the deaths were the work of a poisonous snake.


	3. A Jury of Her Peers

In "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, the views of the women about Mr. Wright's death changed. By the end, they realized that his wife, whom one of the women was friends with, killed Mr. Wright, since he was a cruel husband. Mrs. Wright had a canary that had its neck wrung, probably by Mr. Wright. When the bird was found in Mrs. Wright's sewing box, one of the women that was searching the house, Mrs. Peters, whispered, "It's the bird." Mrs. McHale, the other woman in the search, was trying to fix Mrs. Wright's quilt of a log cabin, which, as she said, she was "Just pulling out a stitch or two that's not sewed very good."


	4. The Enchanted Raisin

"The Enchanted Raisin," a short story by Jacqueline Balcells, shows the changing of three boys when they acted so horribly that their mother shrank and shriveled up into a raisin. Their father would not believe them. He told the boys, "You know that I hate jokes! Go to bed immediately!" When the father remarries, the boys realized that the stepmother detested them. When the boys were hiding from their stepmother in the attic, their tears made their mother grow back into a normal person. When their father realized what happened, "The stepmother hadn't waited for them. Guessing what had happened, she had run off at full speed with her bags."


	5. The Diamond Necklace

"The Diamond Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant shows how a man and woman try to earn enough money for a lost diamond necklace. This shows justice because they did not have to work the ten years to pay for the replacement and lie to the necklace's owner about losing the original necklace. The husband, who thought of the lie, said, "You must write to your friend that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to turn round." The man and woman did not need to replace the necklace because they should have told the truth, and when the woman talked to her friend about the necklace, the friend said that "…It was worth almost five hundred francs!"


	6. The Kid Nobody Could Handle

"The Kid Nobody Could Handle," by Kurt Vonnegut, is a short play about Jim Donnini, a kid who causes trouble. He changes when he is offered a famous trumpet and declines the offer. When offered the trumpet, he says, "I – I don't want it." He also says "Can I have my boots back?" when the band teacher, Mr. Helmholtz, takes his (Jim's) boots away from Jim. He changed when, after he declined the offer, he takes the trumpet after the band teacher smashes it.


	7. Sweet 15

"Sweet 15," by Shannon Weil, is about the justice a Mexican-American girl gets for her father. Her father won't let the girl, Marta, have her coming-of-age 15th birthday party soon, although it is traditional for Mexicans. This is because he is an illegal immigrant, and may have to take the family back to Mexico. To help her father and to earn her party, she decides, "If a person can prove how long he's been in the country – and that he earned his own way – he can qualify for amnesty. I can prove my father qualifies if I can get signatures at his old jobs." She goes and gets the signatures she needs. Her friend's cousin states, "He wanted to keep your life sweet." In the end her father gets the justice he deserved, and Marta got her party.


	8. King Midas

In the myths of "King Midas," the king changes because of his greed. After helping the mentor of one of the gods, Midas is granted one wish: everything he touches turned to gold. His food and drinks were turned to gold, and he became hungrier and thirstier. "He even accidentally killed his daughter when he touched her, and this truly made him realize the depth of his mistake."


	9. The Ransom of Red Chief

In O. Henry's story "The Ransom of Red Chief," the kidnappers get justice. The kidnappers have $500 and need $1,500 more to go to Illinois. They decide to kidnap the son of one of the richest men in town. The boy begins to annoy the kidnappers. The father replies to the ransom note written by the kidnappers and says he'll take his son back, and also take $250. When the kidnappers return the son, one of the kidnappers ran away.


	10. The Lady or the Tiger

"The Lady or the Tiger," by Frank Stockton, shows justice in an unusual way. The king punished the people that broke the laws by letting them open one door. One door had a tiger behind it; the other had a lady. The accused chose his own fate. The man who was dating the king's daughter was given this punishment. It is never said which he picked.


	11. Lamb to the Slaughter

In "Lamb to the Slaughter," by Roald Dahl, a man is killed by his pregnant wife. She kills him because he tells her something she doesn't want to hear. When she goes to make dinner, she takes a leg of lamb out of the freezer and uses it as a club to hit her husband over the back of the head. She goes to get some groceries. When she comes back, she calls the police and says someone else killed her husband. When the police come, she gives them dinner – the leg of lamb, the only piece of evidence.


End file.
